Hello! Welcome to The Bipolar Parent’s Saturday Morning Mental Health Check in: Sunshine Edition! Thanks so much for dropping by.
How are you? How’s the weather been? How are the kids? What have you been struggling with? Are you managing to perform self-care? Let me know in the comments!
First, I apologize that this post is so late. It’s more like a Saturday Afternoon Mental Health Check in, haha. I forgot to write the post yesterday (Friday), which is what I usually do.
When I signed on to my website this morning, I found it wasn’t working, so I needed to troubleshoot it. I was frantically working on that, and then my kids woke up and wanted to cuddle with me upstairs. I figured my kids are more important than a website (sorry!), and cuddled with them.
Then, at 10am, we had a toddler group (like a co-op preschool, but one day a week) class, as a make-up class for a snow day we’d had in December. I also forgot about that. So that’s why this post is so late.
My Week
My week has been a blend of ups and downs.
The sun finally came out this week, so I spent a lot of time just sitting in sun puddles and soaking it up, like my cat did. The therapy boxes and the higher dose of Wellbutrin, my antidepressant (plus an new anti-anxiety med) seem to be working. So I’ve had more good days than bad this week, a welcome change.
On Tuesday, I felt great, but stayed up until 2am working on my new fantasy story. I thought I would be tired the next day. But on Wednesday, I jumped out of bed at 7:30am, feeling great. I rode the high all day.
Thursday was objectively terrible. I woke up groggy and depressed and stayed that way until 4:30pm, when I finally mustered up the energy to get out of the house. I took Toddler in her stroller to a nearby coffee shop, and we had a mother-daughter date. That was nice.
On Friday, which was Valentine’s day, I felt great again, so I cleaned the house and made lasagna (my husband’s favorite meal, which was one of my presents to him).
Today, I feel great again. So this week has been excellent, and I think it’s because of all the sunshine we’ve been getting. There was no sun for all of January. It rained continuously every day. That was a dark time for me, both literally and metaphorically.
if you are bipolar (or even if you aren’t), I hope that you, too, have been conquering depression lately, or just haven’t had to deal with that part of the disease in a while. Thanks for listening.
Related:
- How to Manage the Winter Blues/Seasonal Affective Disorder
- What is a Warmline, and How Do You Use Them?
- How to Communicate with Family During the Holidays When You Have a Mental Illness
The Bipolar Parent 
Cass, I’m so so so so glad you had a much better week!
The sunshine makes a huge difference for me, too, as I think you know. 🌞
Sending you love and hugs,
Dy
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Dearest Dyane,
Thank you so much for weeping when I weep and rejoicing when I rejoice. You’re a true friend. I really appreciate your constant support and gentle comments. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
And doesn’t that sun make a difference! The sun is so crucial to everyone’s mental health. My mother works night shift as a nurse, and I don’t know how she does it.
I’m glad that you seem to be doing well, too! Congrats on the recent review of your wonderful book.
XOXOXO,
Cass
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